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58 Wellbeing Centre: Bringing luxury to the wellbeing market

The 58 Wellbeing Centre in Mayfair provides an uplifting working space for top professional practitioners to offer the best wellbeing treatments including massages, hypnotherapy and laser hair removal. The couple offer therapists a one-stop-shop, dealing with back office jobs including bookings and payments so that they can focus on their clients.

The combination of business expertise and a business with a wellbeing mission has made the concept popular with practitioners and clients alike. Originally founded in Lancaster Gate in 2007, the couple moved recently to a bigger space in Mayfair to cope with demand. “We went from having four therapy rooms to 15, and can now accommodate more than 30 unique clinics who see their clients at our space,” Cohen-Sagi explained.

Tapping into the growing market for natural goods, they followed the move by launching a range of lifestyle products under the brand name 58 Artisan Wellbeing, “to enhance the 58 lifestyle experience for clients wherever they are”, and give them part of the brand to take home.

Yet despite their success now, the couple started their business at a difficult time, and the first few years of its life were an uphill struggle. “We opened a year before the recession, so for the first few years we were running the business, people were cautious about whether they could afford therapies. We had to keep reinventing ourselves and our offering at the same time as remaining truthful to our values. Making sure we’ve stay committed to them throughout the way has always been important,” Cohen-Sagi said. “But my personal philosophy is that life happens, and if you doing something you love and believe in, there will always be a way to make it succeed.”

These values are at the very core of the partners’ business. “We promote professionalism and collaboration; there is no internal competition at our centre, so we won’t offer a space to a therapist who would be vying for clients with an existing practioner,” Cohen-Sagi explained. We’re focused on attracting high-calibre professionals who can offer rich variety of therapies and who believe in a collaborative approach as a wellbeing support method.”

Her business heroes are the clinicians her working space is home to. “Our amazing team of therapists are incredibly inspiring. Many moved with us to our new location and have now been at 58 for such long time that they feel as though they have become part of a family.”

The couple have also prioritised their relationships with employees, striving to retain the front-desk staff and succeeding in retaining many for more than three years. “You have to invest in your people, they are the heart of your business,” she explained.

In contrast to the tensions that might be expected from a husband and wife team, Cohen-Sagi is positive about working with her spouse. “We had worked together before starting our business, so we knew it worked. We have very different personalities and we’ve learned how to empower each other and help the other person to strive.”

Yet despite their cosy, holistic approach, the couple’s background means their business hasn’t shied away from innovative platforms and time saving apps. “After working in a tech company for years, I can’t really see any type of company working without behind ahead of the game,” explained Cohen-Sagi, who is a fan of online booking platform MindBody.

“Technology helps us achieve flexible working as we share our files online, manage online bookings and we review and run our online campaigns on various social media platforms. I believe that the more I can manage and update from my mobile, the more ahead I can get,” she added.

The couple have built their business by offering flexibility to clients and staff, letting management vary their hours and work remotely, and therapists commit to anything from a full-time sub-lease to ad hoc access to a consulting room. Repeat custom is key to the model, with one-third of clients seeing more than one therapist within the clinic.

Expansion will involve widening the range of take-home wellbeing products and expanding into more locations, though Cohen-Sagi is keen not to rush into a new location, with the right space the key priority. “We would like to expand to more locations but finding the right building is really important. “Not only does the space need to be approachable and allow therapists and clients a central, easy place to get to, it needs to be somewhere we can fit out in the right boutique style,” she said.

With millennials showing no sign of slowing down their appetite for purchases connected to mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing – and the global wellness market recently valued at $3.4tn – the team begind 58 Wellbeing seem well placed to expand their fussion of values and efficiency to a growing chunk of this market.

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